I imagine Mesa has dropped their rates to guarantee revenue from someone to replace US Airways. But, DL surprises me. DL has always had high standards. I guess everything goes when you are bleeding money.

And I was always proud of Delta for keeping things simple, with never more than 4 Connection carriers (Skywest, ASA and Comair as constant carriers, with the fourth being (in order) Business Express, Trans States, ACA), and now, they will have 6 (ASA, Comair, Skywest, Chautauqua, Mesa dba Freedom Air and American Eagle (LAX only), 7 if you count Chautauqua and Republic as different airlines.
It will also be interesting to see where Mesa will base their aircraft for Delta.
One thing I'm wondering about: I thought Freedom Air was a CR7/CR9-only operator, because they were cheaper than Mesa would be, and now they use CR2s? Somehow I don't understand that.

Because Mesa is a bottom feeding airline that prostitutes themselves to the mailine carriers, they operate at costs below that of other "regional" airlines. That being said, it becomes economical for Delta to allocate a CRJ operated by Mesa on routes previously flown by the Dornier 328. If Comair, ASA or Chautauqua operated 50 seat planes on route previously operated by 34 seat planes it wouldn't make financial sense. But with Mesa being the cheap harlots they are, led by the evil Lorenzo-esque Orenstein these routes will be economical operated by a larger capasity airline.

IMO these planes will be based in CVG and or BOS. Reason being is that's where the 328s were based flying short hops to thin markets that were perfect for a 34 seat jet.

THis is bad news for the folks at Comair and especially ASA. It just goes to show the vulnerability of a wholly owned carrier in this messed up industry. The worst part is that ASA is in pilot negotiations and references to Mesa, if not already done so, WILL be made. "If Mesa flies the CRJ for this much... why can't you?"

Im wondering what the implications will be at Comair and ASA as well. This has got to be a slap in the face to them. Why buy them in the first place? Specifically at Comair, just about all the employees gave concessions to allow the company to take more aircraft..yet more flying has been awarded to someone else...again...and MESA at that! Comair/ALPA has got to be pretty hot about this. Finally, what the hell does Delta need with 380 crj's? Is that not overkill? Will they have mainline jets flying anywhere? Just my two cents!

Quoting Jdaniel001 (Reply 1):But, DL surprises me. DL has always had high standards. I guess everything goes when you are bleeding money.

I think this is one of the main thinks that is plaguing the major airlines right now. The farming out of all these flights being operated by another party of your behalf. You have no idea of the quality being offered or lack of it being offered all in your name.

I agree.. look at AA and CO... they own (or CO still has a large stake in ExpressJet) and they are doing well with their regionals. Even US own over half of their regionals.. Who knows what this will bring about, but it will be nice to see as time progresses..

DL is my preferred airline. I usually only fly them, I work for them (but not employed by them). I wish them the best, but I don't think they are moving in the right direction and I think management is largely to blame.

Delta never ceases to amaze me. Here they've said over and over that they want to get back to good customer service, yet they've now brought the absolute worst regional airline into their operation. I have some good friends over at ASA. Good luck to them.

What I'm wondering about is the Freedom Airlines thing. They shut them down last year supposedly. I figured they would bring it back for some reason. The mainline Mesa employees hated that division...can't bode well.

What I'm wondering about is the Freedom Airlines thing. They shut them down last year supposedly. I figured they would bring it back for some reason. The mainline Mesa employees hated that division...can't bode well.

All of the CRJ-900s were removed from the Freedom certificate late last year, however, JO has now put a single Beech on the F8 cert. It has been running PHXHIIIGM runs for the last few months. Freedom is now part of M.A.G but the stigma from the whole previous F8 fiasco still is there....

Are you guys sure this is the end of Mesa at Us Airways? I'm reading that they are going to be flying CRJ's for Delta, but I thought that they flew ERJ's for US Airways. Could this be new aircraft and new growth?

What about what's up with Comair? Are they still getting the E70 and putting them in service by 3rd Qtr this year? Is Mesa just taking over for Skywest? From what I thought, Comair and ASA had taken over the ACA routes.. does this mean Mesa will be replacing Comair and ASA on those routes also?

Quoting ERJ170 (Reply 13):Are these 30 CRJ being pulled from somewhere or are they new orders?

Now that is the interesting point about this deal. The deal mentions "up to 30" CRJ200s.

According to Mesa's lates 10Q/8K reports, it operates only 56, 50 seat CRJ100/200 aircraft, with zero additional aircraft on order.

All of these aircraft are under long term commitments to United(15), US Airways(23) and America West(18). Only the America West agreement currently allows the draw down if aircraft however not until 2007.

So unless Mesa is going to go out and acquire a large block of used aircraft (could be ex FLYi birds), these aircraft must be coming from a current operator.

Now how this plays into into the rumored US+HP tie up and any interest Mesa might have in the marriage??

It seems to me Mesa might be shying away, or atleast hedging its bets from a HP+US deal by diversifying its flying by placing aircraft with Delta.

Correct me if I am wrong but doesn't USAirways have the right to terminate their agreement with Mesa since the relationship was established prior to bankruptcy in the same way that United terminated theirs with Air Wisconsin. I would not be surprised to see the 23 CRJs with USAirways move over to Delta to help make room for some of Air Wisconsins planes. Air Wisconsin now sits on the board of USAirways and I think this is something they would want to do.

I think people are reading too much into the fact that the CR2's would be flown at Freedom Air. My best guess is that this is being done to avoid DALPA scope clause violations since Mesa currently operates CR9's for America West. Since Freedom is technically a separate airline, there's no issue with a Delta Connection carrier operating jets with more than 70 seats, even in another airline's colors. Freedom was originally set up by Mesa to bust the pilots' union, but at this point the goal is to avoid violating Delta's scope clause.

My guess on the motivation behind this deal: Delta wants to make it tougher on US Airways to reorganize, and giving Mesa a place to fly some of its jets means that US management loses a bargaining chip in trying to force Mesa to invest in the reorganization and/or lower contract flying rates. I suspect that if Jon Ornstein were really bullish on US Airways' prospects, he would have put up the $100 million they claimed to need and/or agreed to buy PSA and its CR2/CR7 fleet. To me, this deal has the feel of the rats abandoning a sinking ship.

Quoting Laxintl (Reply 18):All of these aircraft are under long term commitments to United(15), US Airways(23) and America West(18). Only the America West agreement currently allows the draw down if aircraft however not until 2007.

I was under the impression that the CR2s for UA were just temporary until more CR7s arrived. Is this the case?

Those aircraft are being retired over 4 years. DL will receive 48 737-800s between 2006-2007 if I remember correctly, so capacity shouldn't decrease. They're also increasing aircraft utilization which I'm sure you already knew.

Jeremy

25 DAL767400ER
: With the way things are going, that might happen faster . 36 in one year alone (not sure whether 2006 or 2007; dang it, I always forget their deliver

26 FriendlySkies
: If DL continues to lose $5.6 bn a year, I highly doubt we will see any 737s being delivered.

27 Ouboy79
: Or how about the other side...this opens US Airways up to reject the Mesa agreement finally and make room for AWAC? Either way Mesa will still be inv

28 DLKAPA
: Any chances for New routes, maybe DRO in the future? What of DH2's, does the contract include options for a few of those as well?

29 ScottB
: US Airways already had the option of rejecting the Mesa agreement by virtue of the fact that it is in bankruptcy reorganization. They can cancel most

30 TinPusher007
: While I agree that 380 CRJ's in the DL Conx system is quite rediculous...so is your above statement. Fuel is probably the biggest reason, with poor m

31 Ejmmsu
: notice in my statement I said ".......its ONE of the reasons..." I never said it was the only reason. Also, fuel, poor management, and RJ's go hand i

32 Piedmontbrat
: All I can say is: "Warning, Will Robinson, Warning!" Mesa getting involved with Delta spells disaster. Mesa has been a horrible regional carrier for U

33 TinPusher007
: Points taken. All things considered, I think we agree that more RJ's for DL is not a good thing for pax or for their balance sheet...especially if th

34 DAL767400ER
: While it definitely isn't good for pax, it should be good for DL's balance sheet, simply because the employees (especially the pilots) at Freedom Air